L.A. Fashion Week Spring '08: Oligo Tissew
Oligo Tissew designer Kristopher Enuke found inspiration in an alternate reality for his Spring 2008 collection, which bowed Oct. 18 at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Calif.
“It’s where we are versus where we want to be,” said Enuke, who designs the line with his wife, Amy. “We thought, ’What if the world was like this—no war, no conflict, a world full of light and beauty?’” Dubbed “Fairy a Place,” the impetus for the collection was the desire to escape to a more ideal world, Enuke said, noting that he kept the colors pure and the knits airy.
For denim, that meant pants and skirts washed down to a nearly white shade with just a hint of pigment or in midnight with a bit of sheen. For a bit of color, Enuke added a periwinkle shade. Shapes included fitted pencil shirts and high-waisted jeans in trouser and ultra-skinny styles.
T-shirt graphics were breezy, with bright florals combined with Japanese cartoon imagery. “There’s a sweet cake girl in Japanese folklore,” Enuke explained. “She brings joy and good cheer.”
Screen-printed T-shirt dresses featured draped backs designed to convey a sense of airiness. Indeed, when the models walked the runway, the back of the dresses swung and billowed behind them. “We tried to imbue a lightness of being into the process,” Enuke said. —Alison A. Nieder
